It is known to link a rocking derrick to the rear of the chassis of a lorry through the agency of a sub-chassis, while a jack, which is pivoted on the chassis and the foot of the derrick, allows rocking the latter at will. The head of the derrick is provided with means which allow hooking a box in order to load it on the chassis of the lorry, or, on the other hand, to put it on the ground.
This kind of device is described, for instance, in the French Patent Application No. 72 19 596, filed on May 23, 1972, under the title "A self-contained device for handling containers on a lorry," and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,948 issued Apr. 22, 1975 which is incorporated herein by reference.
There also exists another device, which is not intended for handling containers, but is intended, more particularly, for handling removable buckets. This device is constituted by two arms, which are pivoted on the rear of the chassis of the lorry, while two jacks, which are pivoted on the chassis and the arms, enable rocking the latter. The ends of the arms are provided with means for hooking a removable bucket either to be put on the chassis of the lorry, or, on the other hand, to be put on the ground. This kind of device is described, for instance, in French Patent No. 1,010,863 applied for on Jan. 24, 1950, under the title "Improvements in Movable Bucket Vehicles" which is incorporated herein by reference.
Another device is known, which allows loading or unloading containers. It is constituted by a sub-chassis pivoted on the rear of the chassis of the lorry. A mechanism, which includes a jack, allows lifting the sub-chassis, while a winch, the cable of which is disposed on the end of said sub-chassis, allows hoisting the container to be loaded. The lower part of the container is provided with two longitudinal rails, which bear, during the loading operation, on two rollers provided on the sub-chassis, immediately above the rear axle of the lorry.
This kind of device is described, for instance, in the French Patent No. 1,529,639, filed on Feb. 20, 1967, under the title "Improvements to Lorries and the Like Provided with a Device for Hoisting Containers which are Lying on the Ground," and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,407 issued Oct. 14, 1969 which is incorporated herein by reference.
The three above types of handling devices have drawbacks, in that they do not allow handling both movable buckets and containers, and in that each of them requires using a lorry of a particular or special type.
An object of the present invention is to obviate such drawbacks by providing a device which enables removable buckets to be handled by a lorry intended to handle containers only.